Laius

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legend of Oedipus

According to one version of the story, Laius, king of Thebes, was warned by an oracle that his son would slay him. Accordingly, when his wife, Jocasta (Iocaste; in Homer, Epicaste), bore a son, he had the baby exposed (a form of infanticide) on Cithaeron. (Tradition has it that his name, which means “Swollen-Foot,” was a result of his feet having been pinned together, but modern...

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